Foamy Foam Goodness!

[mciaio]

I did a batch last Sunday of American Amber Ale. Been fermenting for 8 days. I looked a couple of times at it during the week and noticed a nice yeast cake. Took a hyrdrometer and it read 1.021, fg should be 1.016 so just a little longer. I'm just gonna wait until next weekend anyway. I tasted it and I love it, I really can't wait.

My question is this; I wanted to induce lots of oxygen when I started last Sunday. This is an extract kit, so I had two gallons of water in my pail, and I poured the wort on top; from about counter height when the pail was on the floor. Topped off with some water from the spray hose on the sink, from far ahead! MORE OXYGEN! Needless to say it was foamy when I pitched. Will the head/yeast cake/foam settle when the yeast are done? It really doesn't matter, I was just curious. Did I say it tastes good? Oh man was it good. Much better than that Grolsch I was drinking; that stuff is garbage. Such good bottles, such bad beer.

 

[nakros]

Congrats on your brew!

After a bit of experimenting, I'm convinced that the conventional wisdom here of letting the beer sit in the primary for 3-4 weeks and then bottling is great advice. Whenever I've bottled in 2 weeks or less, the beer just isn't quite as tasty. 3-4 weeks in the primary, it has been very drinkable after 2 weeks in the bottle. I've bottled 3 beers that were less than 2 weeks in the primary, and they've made beer, but no where near as good a beer as I've made if I waited the 3-4 weeks.

As far as the foam -- no, it disappears. I try to get 3-4" of foam on the top of my wort before I pitch the yeast and from the results of my beers so far (12 or so), the yeast have been happily doing their job.

I would say you need to go out and pick up another bucket (or 3) and start another batch. I started in December and now have 3 beers, 3 wines, and 1 apfelwein fermenting at any point in time.

 

[mciaio]

Sounds like good advice. I need to get more buckets if I am going to wait that long. I have read people say 1,2,3. 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary and 3 weeks in bottles. I guess I could keep it in the primary for three weeks since I don't have a secondary yet, then three weeks in the bottle. At this rate I wouldn't be able to transfer into the secondary yet anyway, SG is still too high, correct?

 

[dsoto75]

At this rate I wouldn't be able to transfer into the secondary yet anyway, SG is still too high, correct?

I try to get as close to the final known gravity as I can, but if I get the same reading over the course of a week (taking reading every 2 days or so after at least 3 weeks in the primary), then it's pretty safe to say the fermentation is done. I'll move it to the secondary at that point.